Join Our Crowdfunding Campaign: Support Freefilmers!
Design: Sean van den Steenhoven
The project To Watch the War: The Moving Image Amidst the Invasion of Ukraine (2014–2023) and the project To Watch the War, In Solidarity are accompanied by a crowdfunding campaign in support of Freefilmers—some of its members are artists and activist filmmakers included in the exhibition and public program.
Originally from Mariupol, Freefilmers began as a network of filmmakers and artists based in Mariupol. After the all-out Russian invasion in Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Freefilmers are now forcibly dispersed across the world, engaging in struggle against Russian imperial aggression and all imperialist warfare the world over. Since February 2022, the collective has transformed their established infrastructures of filmmaking into newly-consolidating humanitarian support networks to provide support to some of the most vulnerable people in south and east Ukraine. With your donation, Freefilmers can continue making films in defiance of war and, moreover, building an intersectional network of humanitarian solidarity and support for internally displaced people and vulnerable communities, including Roma people, refugee youth, farmers in de-occupied territories, women from rural areas, people with disabilities, and other non-normative minorities.
As a local-run organization and NGO, Freefilmers have both minimal overhead and great access to local materials, so every cent of your donations goes to people in need. Some examples of communities and initiatives supported by Freefilmers include refugee support for Roma and youth, grassroots kitchens, repairing laptops and radio equipment for refugees, de-mining workshops, creating portable ovens for cooking and heating, and producing clothes for people with life-changing injuries.
People supported by Freefilmers include:
* Refugee Roma families in Zaporizhzhia;
* Refugee youth from Mariupol and other occupied cities, in co-operation with Ptichka Fund;
* Women from rural areas who need medical and professional support;
* Farmers in the de-occupied territories, who need building equipment, gardening tools, and instruments for resuming agriculture
Initiatives supported by Freefilmers include:
* Grassroots and anarchist kitchens;
* The radioresistance volunteer collective, who repair and upgrade radio equipment and laptops for refugees;
* A volunteer collective producing adaptive clothes for people with life-changing injuries;
* A volunteer workshop producing grapnels for de-mining;
* A volunteer workshop producing portable ovens for cooking and heating when electricity is unavailable.
Please join the GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign here: the time is now!
Click here for further updates concerning the campaign, Freefilmers and for more details about the humanitarian initiatives they are supporting.
Click here for more info about the exhibition To Watch the War: The Moving Image Amidst the Invasion of Ukraine (2014–2023)
